Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

We are very open to this. An attitude has slipped into this House which I do not like, namely, the notion that just because a person is not in the same party he or she cannot come and talk to Ministers about ideas. It is very important that we share those ideas. If there are issues of personal circumstances we would be more than happy to do what we can. We speak to the Revenue Commissioners to see if we can facilitate people in the context of the overall picture.

The Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, and I have been discussing the overall trade package with the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher. I see merit in the context of the medium term where we are looking at export potential in new emerging markets. This is what we are doing. If we are going to have economic recovery and growth it will have to be based on exports. There are risks in certain parts of the country. As long as these are not completely adverse, I feel there is merit in looking at a credit insurance scheme. The short-term measure, namely, €1.7 million means 66 jobs.

The other concern I would have, which I articulated recently to the joint committee, is that only four companies are involved in this insurance. That, in itself, is very restrictive for companies. Equally, until we had these present difficulties, some companies did not realise they were insured and it came as a bit of a shock to them when the cover was taken away.

If the Deputy has a particular issue he should give it to any of us and we will look after it for him.

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